Melbourne radio ratings: 3AW and Gold FM finish the year on top in a survey of movers
Unsurprisingly Nine Radio’s 3AW has ended 2021 as Melbourne’s top radio station, with a 16.6% share of the Melbourne radio market, despite a 2.3 point drop in the eighth GfK radio survey of the year, and the first since lockdowns finished.
ARN’s Gold 104.3 has ended the year on top of the FM station pile, again despite a 0.8 percentage point drop to 10.1% overall, with Christian O’Connell again winning FM breakfast.
O’Connell’s flagship breakfast show has dipped for the second successive book, now sitting at 8%, after dropping from 9.4% to 8.6% in survey seven.
Radio ratings survey 8. [click to enlarge]
The market’s two dominant AM breakfast shows both took slight hits, though not as severe as some expected, indicating a potential lasting shift in listening habits, as reported earlier this year.
3AW’s Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft dropped 1.5 points, to remain on a highly impressive 22.8% share, while ABC Melbourne’s Sammy J fell 0.3 points to a 14% share.
Melbourne’s FM king of 2021
The 3AW pair’s performance, despite the drop, continues to eclipse previous results, ending each survey in 2021 as the number one show in Melbourne.
Elsewhere, it was an improved book for Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) stations, Triple M and Fox, the former rising 0.8 points to 4.8%, and the latter rising 1.1 points to a 6.6% share.
Triple M will hope for a continued boost over the summer as it broadcasts the 2021/22 Ashes cricket tour.
Ross and Russel, the undisputed winners of Melbourne radio in 2021
The survey also delivered a much needed boost for Fox’s breakfast team of Fifi, Fev and Nick, after what was a disappointing first year overall. This provides momentum into 2022 for the trio, rising from 4.7% to 6.6%, the largest boost in the breakfast slot.
AM stations in the drive slow experienced a tough book, with 3AW’s Tom Elliot dropping 3.3 points to 13% and ABC Melbourne’s Raf Epstein surrendering ground again, with a 2.6% drop to 9.2%.
Mick Molloy’s imminent departure failed to have a major impact on share, with a 0.1 points drop to 5% overall for his national drive show. Meanwhile, Gold’s Gavin Miller continued to shine with a 10.9% overall share in drive, a rise of 0.2 points.
Nova’s Kate, Tim and Joel took a slight hit in the drive show, falling from 7.6% to 7%, while the station’s breakfast show, Chrissie, Sam and Brownie also fell from 6.9% to 6.1%.
Greg Byrnes, Nine Radio’s head of content, said: “The past 12 months have shown why Talk Radio is the trusted source of news and opinion. Australians turned to us in record numbers as they sought live and local content. We thank our listeners for sticking with us and assure them we’ll be relevant, setting agendas and working ever harder in 2022.”
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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topics
3AW
ABC Melbourne
Christian O'Connell
Fifi Fev and Nick
Fox FM
Gold FM
Melbourne radio ratings
Ross and Russel
Sammy J
Tom Elliot
Although I am a 3AW listener, my gripe is the news service. Quite often we have “news” misreported, or, important happenings not reported at all, but most annoying is the mispronounced words, place names and names of prominent people. And it’s not just one newsreader/reporter it’s across the board with the exception of Gail Watson who runs rings around the rest of them. The regular morning newsreader is the worst, who makes heavy breathing noises into the microphone and runs one news item into the next with no pause.
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